Container filling device with flow control

ABSTRACT

A measuring tank for a container filling machine has a central outlet opening in its bottom covered with a flow control member provided with holes through it for rapid flow of liquid to the outlet. The tank is divided by a resilient diaphragm into an upper air chamber and a lower liquid dispensing chamber. The device is provided with a restricted flow passage extending inwardly from the periphery of the flow control member. The upper chamber has an air inlet for stretching the diaphragm down into engagement with the flow control member to force liquid down through its holes and to then close them to reduce the rate of flow through the outlet opening. The restricted flow passage is in a position for continued flow of liquid through it after the holes have been closed by the diaphragm and until the lower chamber is emptied.

United States Patent [191 Waxiax Jan. 28, 1975 1 CONTAINER FILLINGDEVICE WITH FLOW CONTROL [75] Inventor: Chester E. Waxlax, Moon Twp.,Pa.

[73] Assignee: Horix Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.

22 Filed: Oct. 11, 1973 211 Appl. No.: 405,441

[52] US. Cl 222/444, 138/30, 141/128,

222/386.5 [51] Int. Cl. B67c 3/04 [58] Field of Search 222/253, 386.5,444;

Primary ExaminerRobert B. Reeves Assistant ExaminerThomas E. KocovskyAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Brown, Murray, Flick and Peckham [57] ABSTRACTA measuring tank for a container filling machine has a central outletopening in its bottom covered with a flow control member provided withholes through it for rapid flow of liquid to the outlet. The tank isdivided by a resilient diaphragm into an upper air chamber and a lowerliquid dispensing chamber. The device is provided with a restricted flowpassage extending inwardly from the periphery of the flow controlmember. The upper chamber has an air inlet for stretching the diaphragmdown into engagement with the flow control member to force liquid downthrough its holes and to then close them to reduce the rate of flowthrough the outlet opening. The restricted flow passage is in a positionfor continued flow of liquid through it after the holes have been closedby the diaphragm and until the lower chamber is emptied.

3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEB JAN28$975 SHEEI 1 BF 3 SHEET 2' OF3 PATENTEB JAN 2 81975 SHEET 3 OF 3 CONTAINER FILLING DEVICE WITH FLOWCONTROL In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,832 a container filling machine isshown that includes a number of hollow arms projecting radially from acentral supply tank that is rotated continuously. Mounted on the outerends of the arms are small measuring tanks, each of which has adiaphragm inside of it that is drawn upwardly by reduced air pressure tofill the tank with liquid product from the supply tank. Then thediaphragm is forced downwardly by air pressure to expel the liquid fromthe measuring tank in order to discharge it down through a filling tubeinto a container that is to be filled. For high production rates it isdesirable to presure-fill containers in this manner as rapidly aspossible, but if liquid enters a container at high velocity and does notslow down as the top of the container is approached, the high velocityis likely to cause some of the liquid to be expelled from the container.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a containerfilling device that can fill a container with liquid very rapidlywithout causing overflow.

This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which;

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary vertical section through a container fillingmachine;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the flow control member taken on to lineII-Il of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section of the measuring tankshowing the diaphragm in flowretarding position;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to the preceding one, but showing the positionof the diaphragm when the tank is emptied;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 but showing a modification; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged bottom view taken on to line VI-VI of FIG. 5.

The container filling machine of this disclosure may be similar to theone shown in my Pat. No. 3,757,832, the present invention being directedto the individual measuring tanks by which containers are filled with apredetermined volume of liquid product. As in my patent, there are aplurality of hollow horizontal conduit arms, only one of which is shownin FIG. 1. The righthand end of the arm 1 receives liquid product from acontinuously rotating central supply tank (not shown) to which the armis connected and by which it is supported. The opposite or outer end ofthe arm has an opening in its top extending up through a boss 2 on whichis rigidly mounted the lower end of a neck 3 around an opening in thebottom ofa small tank, which is a volumetric measuring tank. The openingwill be referred to herein as an outlet opening, although it servesperiodically as an inlet opening also.

The tank preferably has a substantially hemispherical lower section 4,on which a dome-like upper section 5 is mounted. Between the twosections the edge of an elastic or resilient diaphragm 6 is clamped, thesections being held together by a clamping ring 7. The upper section hasan upwardly extending central portion, in which a vertically movableplug 8 is disposed. The plug has a central threaded stem 9 that isscrewed into an opening through the top of the tank. A hand wheel 10 isrigidly mounted on the projecting upper end of the stem to enable it tobe turned in order to adjust the plug up and down. A hemispherical shell11 may be secured to the bottom of the plug, with its edge slidinglyengaging a cylindrical portion of the side wall of the upper section ofthe tank. This shell is provided with a number of openings 12 to freelyconnect the inside of it with an opening 13 in the tank beside the plug.This last opening is connected by a pipe 14 and a suitable valve (notshown) alternately with a source of subatmospheric pressure and a sourceof air under pressure in order to reduce or to increase the air pressurein the air chamber above the diaphragm.

The diaphragm is elastic enough to be drawn upwardly into engagementwith the inside of the shell II and to be forced down into engagementwith the inner surface of the lower section of the tank. The verticalposition of the shell 11 in the tank determines the distance that thediaphragm can be drawn upwardly, and consequently the capacity of thedispensing chamber below the diaphragm. That capacity is adjusted sothat it will be only great enough to fill a single container with thedesiredvolume or quantity of product, so after the tank has filled acontainer the tank must be refilled.

The bottom of the hollow arm 1 is provided with an outlet opening 16,normally closed by a valve 17, from which a filling tube 18 extendsdownwardly and into a container, such as a bottle 19. The measuring tankis filled from the central supply tank through the connecting arm.Liquid is drawn up into the tank by reducing the air pressure above thediaphragm in order to draw it up against the inside of shell 11, therebycausing liquid to flow out through the arm and up into the dispensingchamber. After the measuring tank has been filled in this way, air underpressure is supplied through pipe 14 to the tank above the diaphragm toforce the latter down in order to discharge the liquid from beneath it,valve 17 having been opened in the meantime as shown so that the liquidwill flow down through the filling tube and into the bottle to fill it.It isa feature of this invention that the bottle can be filled veryrapidly, without overflow due to high velocity flow.

Accordingly, the meauring tank is provided with a flow control membercovering the outlet opening in its bottom. This member permits most ofthe liquid in the tank to be discharged from it at a rapid rate, butthen retards the flow of the last few ounces so that the uppermost partof the container receiving the liquid will be filled more slowly toavoid overflow. The flow control member may be a circular plate 21 thatseats on the sidewall of the tank a short distance above the outletopening as shown in FIG. 1. The center of the plate is provided with adownwardly extending stem or pin 22 that extends down through aperforated disc 23 secured in the upper end of the outlet opening. Thelower end of the pin can be provided with an anular groove in whichthere is an O-ring or spring clip 24 to hold the pin and plate in place.As shown in FIG. 2, the central portion of the plate around the pin isprovided with a number of holes 25 that will allow the liquid product toflow down through the plate rapidly. Extending from this central portionoutwardly to the edge of the plate there is a radial slot 26, throughwhich liquid also can flow from the dispensing chamber into the tankoutlet.

OPERATION In operation, after the dispensing chamber has been filledwith liquid product as previously described, air under pressure issupplied to the tank above the diaphragm and forces it downwardly. Thediaphragm in turn forces liquid down through the holes and slot in theflow control plate 21 and out of the tank and into a bottle 19. As longas the diaphragm does not touch the flow control plate the discharge ofliquid from the tank is substantially unimpeded and bottle filling willbe very fast. However, the center of the diaphragm will eventuallyengage the center of the plate and then the diaphragm will start toflatten out against the plate. This flattening starts at the center ofthe diaphragm and radiates therefrom and therefore closes the holesthrough the flow control plate, as shown in FIG. 3. By the time all ofthe holes in the plate are closed by the diaphragm there are only a fewounces of liquid remaining to be discharged from the tank, and sincethis liquid can excape only through slot 26 in the plate the flow intothe bottle is thereby greatly retarded. Consequently, the liquid risesslowly in the bottle neck and does not overflow it. In other words, thebottle is filled very rapidly for most of its height but filling isslowed down toward the end so that the entering liquid will not exert aforce on the liquid below sufficient to cause the liquid to flow up andout of the top of the bottle. By the time the diaphragm has also closedslot 26, it is in contact with the sidewall of the tank and the fillingoperation is completed, as shown in FIG. 4. The valve 17 to the fillingtube then is closed and the area in the tank above the diaphragm issubjected to subatmospheric pressure through pipe 14 to draw thediaphragm upwardly in order to fill the tank again with liquid productthat will be discharged into the next bottle.

Instead of a thin flow control plate as just described, a much thickerplate 30 may be mounted in the tank in the same way, as shown in FIG. 5.However, instead of having a slot extending through it at one side ofthe group of holes 31 through it, the bottom of the plate may beprovided with one or more grooves 32 that extend inwardly from its edgetowards its center as shown in FIG. 6. One or more of the holes throughthe plate open into the inner end portion of each of these grooves.During filling of a container from the measuring tank 33, the diaphragm34 first forces liquid from the tank down through all of the holes andalso inwardly through the grooves in the bottom of the plate. After thediaphragm engages the center of the plate it starts to flatten outwardlyacross the plate until it completely covers and thereby closes all ofthe holes. However, liquid continues to flow at a much slower rate fromthe area beneath the diaphragm around the plate inwardly through thegrooves and to the outlet opening from the tank. This retarded flowcontinues until the diaphragm has folded down around the plate as shownin FIG. 5 and forced substantially all of the liquid out through thegrooves.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained theprinciple of my invention and have illustrated and described what I nowconsider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have itunderstood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated anddescribed.

I claim:

1. A container-filling device comprising a measuring tank provided inits bottom with a central outlet opening, a resilient diaphragm mountedat its edge in the tank and dividing it into an upper air chamber and alower liquid dispensing chamber, the side wall of said lower chambercurving downwardly and inwardly to said outlet opening, a separate flowcontrol plate in said lower chamber covering said opening and seated atits edge on said side wall around the opening, said plate having acentral stem extending down into said opening, the tank being providedwith means extending across said outlet opening for anchoring said stemto hold the plate in place, the plate having holes through it for rapidflow of liquid through it to said outlet opening, the plate beingprovided with a restricted flow passage extending inwardly from itsperiphery for connecting said lower chamber with said outlet opening,and the upper chamber having an inlet for air under pressure forstretching the diaphragm downwardly and into engagement with said plateto force liquid down through said holes and to then close them to reducethe rate of flow through said outlet opening, said restricted passagebeing in a position for continued flow of liquid therethrough after saidholes have been closed by the diaphragm and until the lower chamber issubstantially emptied by the diaphragm.

2. Ac ontainer filling device according to claim 1, in which saidrestricted flow passage is 5510: in the b ottom of said plate extendinginwardly from said edge.

3. A container filling device according to claim 1, in which said holesare confined to the central portion of said flow control plate, and saidrestricted flow passage is a slot through said plate extending from saidcentral portion outwardly to the edge of said plate.

1. A container-filling device comprising a measuring tank provided inits bottom with a central outlet opening, a resilient diaphragm mountedat its edge in the tank and dividing it into an upper air chamber and alower liquid dispensing chamber, the side wall of said lower chambercurving downwardly and inwardly to said outlet opening, a separate flowcontrol plate in said lower chamber covering said opening and seated atits edge on said side wall around the opening, said plate having acentral stem extending down into said opening, the tank being provideDwith means extending across said outlet opening for anchoring said stemto hold the plate in place, the plate having holes through it for rapidflow of liquid through it to said outlet opening, the plate beingprovided with a restricted flow passage extending inwardly from itsperiphery for connecting said lower chamber with said outlet opening,and the upper chamber having an inlet for air under pressure forstretching the diaphragm downwardly and into engagement with said plateto force liquid down through said holes and to then close them to reducethe rate of flow through said outlet opening, said restricted passagebeing in a position for continued flow of liquid therethrough after saidholes have been closed by the diaphragm and until the lower chamber issubstantially emptied by the diaphragm.
 2. A container filling deviceaccroding to claim 1, in which said restricted flow passage is a slot inthe bottom of said plate extending inwardly from said edge.
 3. Acontainer filling device according to claim 1, in which said holes areconfined to the central portion of said flow control plate, and saidrestricted flow passage is a slot through said plate extending from saidcentral portion outwardly to the edge of said plate.